Top Staff Shakeup On Rikers In Wake of Recent Bad News; Two More Slashings, Too

June 11, 2012

A major shakeup in the upper echelons of the city Correction Department took place late last week, amid word of two more slashings, including one in the troubled teen jail, the Voice has learned.

Three senior Correction officials were reassigned, including the Assistant Chief of Security Mark Scott, who is now a supervising warden overseeing several jails. Scott’s replacement is Supervising Warden Eliseo Perez.

In addition, William Clemons was made an assistant chief in charge of administration. Clemons had been the warden of the Robert N. Davoren Center last year just before allegations of tampering with incident reports surfaced at the jail.

He was promoted and given an award by Commissioner Dora Schriro based in part on showing lower violence numbers at RNDC, but then an investigation uncovered instances of staff uses of force being covered up. In addition, the number of fights were being underreported.

Violence at RNDC among other issues were the subject of a major Voice article last month. Correction officials insisted that they were doing everything they could to address the problems.

On Friday, Correction spokeswoman Sharman Stein told the Voice that Scott’s transfer was not a demotion, but a lateral move. She did not provide an explanation for the transfers. Correction sources told the Voice the moves are in response to a recent wave of violent incidents.

Last week, meanwhile, an adult state prisoner being held at RNDC suffering deep slash wounds on either side of his face, sources tell the Voice. The injured inmate had to be treated at a hospital.

And, another inmate, Darryl Jones, was slashed at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on June 6–the third slashing at OBCC in the past month.